By Kylie Jones
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
It was 1847 when 20-year-old James Feeley arrived in Baltimore on the Bark Margaret Hugg searching for refuge after the Great Hunger began its devastation in Ireland two years earlier.
The ship, carrying 122 passengers to Philadelphia and Baltimore, docked at Lazaretto Point where Feeley disembarked to begin his new life in America.
Feeley began working as a boilermaker for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and later married Sarah Liberty, also an Irish immigrant. The couple settled in a two-story-and-attic row house, just a block from the railroad, where they lived for 20 years to raise a family.
Although it’s been nearly 180 years since the pair moved into the home on Lemmon Street, the building still stands to this day—serving as a museum for the community to better understand Irish heritage in Baltimore.
“Most of the time, as far as I know, house museums get started because somebody famous lives there,” Cecilia Wright, president of The Irish American Museum in Baltimore, said. “None of that kind of stuff went on in this neighborhood. They were everyday working-class kind of people.”
At the museum, which opened in June 2002, visitors can find exhibits focusing on different aspects of early Irish culture in America such as a women-in-the-workplace exhibit, a school exhibit and a church exhibit.
Each of the displays feature photographs, documents and artifacts that date back to when the Irish first arrived in Baltimore, including some of the city’s earliest birth records.
However, the largest exhibit occupies the entirety of 918 Lemmon Street and is a replica of what the Feeley home was like in the 1800’s. On the first floor, visitors will find a spinning wheel, coal stove and a kitchen table set with porridge and soda bread.
Beyond the canvas flooring and up the narrow staircase, there are replica rooms and mannequins for each of the family members. There is even a room explaining what the journey from Ireland to Baltimore was like for early Irish immigrants.
“This shows what it was like coming in,” Wright said. “They were in such bad shape, such desperate conditions. It was really tough.”
The room displays bunk beds, trunks and barrels from the voyage of these immigrants.
Along with the passage room, the upstairs offers a glimpse into the sleeping quarters of the Feeley family. The parents’ bedroom features a straw bed as well as a fireplace and curtains made from leftover fabric from sewing projects.
“They didn’t have that much,” Wright said. “Coming from complete poverty, they were very aware of that. They had a job, and they didn’t really pay them great, but they didn’t want to go back to that poverty.”
The children’s bedroom occupied the attic, with a shared trundle bed, instruments and games scattered throughout the space.
“They recreated this house as best as they could for how we imagined they had it,” Wright said.
The homes themselves, however, were nearly lost. Before they became a museum, the alley houses on Lemmon Street were set for demolition after being considered a public nuisance.
A group of citizens formed a coalition in 1997 to preserve the homes, and the project was successful due to early museum leaders, like Bill Adler, who still contribute to this day.
“I am the last living founder president emeritus of the Railroad Historic Museum,” Adler said. “Among other contributions, I made the Brian Boru Harp and the Celtic cross [at the museum].”
Over the years, the museum has undergone several name changes—the most recent switch being from The Irish Railroad Worker’s Museum to The Irish American Museum.
“Since the founding of the museum, we’ve really expanded what we talk about,” Wright said. “We’ve been telling a lot more of different parts of the Irish immigrants experience in America, and not so much just focused on the railroad workers.”
The effort to preserve Baltimore’s past doesn’t solely belong to the Irish American Museum, however. Organizations like Baltimore Heritage, a nonprofit dedicated to saving historic buildings, work to keep these buildings and their stories standing.
“It’s kind of more than saving old buildings, but these places tell the story of people,” Mary Zajac, communications and research officer for Baltimore Heritage, said. “The historic places will tell the stories of the families, of neighborhoods, of this city and it shines light on our past, of course, but it helps us understand our present.”
Those stories, she said, often reveal the determination behind immigrant communities.
“To understand sort of the grit, the work, the determination and the challenges of being an immigrant from any place— whether you were coming from Ireland, or Poland, or Germany, or Central America or Africa, it gives us a richer understanding of life and what it takes to establish yourself in a new place,” Zajac said.
At the museum, preserving those stories depends largely on the people working behind the scenes. The museum’s board members assist with events, fact finding, and everyday operations.
Sometimes, they even take on unexpected roles.
“Board members come with different rationale for being here,” Martha Connolly, a board member at the museum, said. “I’ll do painting and plastering and that sort of thing. I’ll also do pancake making, website making and video making.”
This sort of work becomes especially important during March—one of the museum’s busiest months due to St. Patrick’s Day. The museum hosts events throughout the month to celebrate Irish culture, including a sightseeing tour, job fair and a talk on the history of Irish women in America.
Beyond the museum’s walls, Irish history remains rich in Baltimore. Connolly points to other Irish landmarks in the area like Hollins Market and St. Peter’s Church.
“You get a sense of the community that was here because when they landed here, nobody had cars, and these guys didn’t even have horses and carriages,” Connolly said. “They walked to work, they walked to Hollins Market, they walked to St. Peter’s Church, and they walked to school. Their whole community was here in West Baltimore, and that was their life. Compared to where they came from in Ireland, it was a whole lot better.”
Currently, the museum is still undergoing renovations, preparing to shift exhibits into larger spaces with its recent acquisition of the other row houses.
Despite upcoming changes, the mission of the museum remains the same as when it first began its formation in 1997.
“I hope they [visitors] learn that story of the perseverance and the dedication and the guts these people would have to have to leave everything behind, never see their family again and come here to try to make their fortune,” Connolly said. “The Irish story really is the American immigration story.”